Anchorman Fired For Prince-Themed Sports Report

A Nashville TV sports broadcaster says he was fired for giving an impressive Prince-themed sports report — which some viewers apparently found “insensitive.”

WZTV reporter Dan Phillips delivered his masterful dispatch April 21, the day of Prince’s death. During a four minute sports roundup for the Fox station, Phillips managed to name-drop each song on “Purple Rain” and just about every other major Prince single (plus some deep cuts) — while never getting any raunchier than a reference to “Erotic City.”

Some highlights include:

“This is what it sounds like when doves cry and when Mike Fisher scores!”

“And clock hits zero — party over, oops, out of time.”

“The Ducks are still two games from dying for you.”

But some viewers apparently didn’t go crazy for his parade of Purple One tributes. Phillips was fired Friday.

“First of all, I want to thank everyone for the kind words, comments and positive feedback on this tribute I did to Prince last week,” Phillips wrote on Facebook.

“Unfortunately, there were apparently some viewers, as well as management at the station, who did not feel the same way. They felt I was insensitive. And as a result, I was terminated today.”

He said he would be moving on to “some exciting things I’ve been working on for some time now.” According to his LinkedIn page, Phillips worked at the station for more than 10 years.

Reached by phone, Phillips declined to comment to the Daily News, and the WZTV news director did not immediately return messages.